The Bermuda National Gallery has launched the 2020 Bermuda Biennial online, allowing people to visit the exhibition, which celebrates the excellence of our island’s artists and their engaging stories, from the comfort of their own homes as they shelter in place.

The exhibition, sponsored by Bacardi Limited, presents work by twenty one local artists which span the spectrum of media including video, installation, works on paper, collage, painting, photography, sculpture and performance, all of which can be explored online.

The 2020 Bermuda Biennial opened at the BNG on the 6th March, less than ten days before the gallery was forced to temporarily closed its doors in the face of the growing pandemic. Since then the gallery has been focusing on a variety of digital initiatives, including the launch of a free weekly arts newsletter which has received a very positive response from the community.

As a result of this engagement and recognizing that we could all use some form positivity right now the Bermuda National Gallery will be making all of their exhibitions fully accessible online, starting with the 2020 Bermuda Biennial which launches today.

The other two exhibitions currently on display at the BNG – What’s Poppin’ Pop Art & Influence, which marks a second collaboration with the Green family, and Land & Sea: Fragile Treasures, which looks at Bermuda through the eye of American Impressionists, will follow shortly.

The online exhibition allows visitors to tour the gallery virtually via video as well as view the artworks individually. Alongside this, online visitors can read the Juror’s Statement, which provides an insight into the curation of the exhibition, and view a digital edition of the exhibition catalogue. For those parents home schooling their children there is an activity booklet to engage children aged 5 to 10, encouraging them to explore and respond to the artworks on display.

Peter Lapsley, Executive Director of the Bermuda National Gallery, said: “The Biennial, focused on diverse perspectives, ideas and investigations of the world stands in stark contrast to the very challenging situation we find ourselves in today and bringing this engaging exhibition and it’s positive representations to the community when they cannot come to us felt important in these challenging times.”

To celebrate the launch of the online exhibition the BNG has partnered with local media company Bermemes to produce a short documentary exploring the making of the exhibition. The film, presented and produced by Qian Dickinson of Bermemes, interviews the 2020 Bermuda Biennial co-curators Melissa Messina, and independent curator and curator of the Mildred Thompson Estate and Kimberli Gant, the McKinnon Curator of Contemporary Art at the Chrysler Museum, who visited the island in January. The film can be viewed on Stories, the BNG blog, at: https://bermudanationalgallery.com/behind-the-scenes-with-bermemes/ Visitors can access the exhibition at: https://bermudanationalgallery.com/exhibitions/2020-bermuda-biennial/

• Press release from the Bermuda National Gallery